Quote from: eddie13 on December 10, 2018, 09:40:19 PM

It locked from the original email account after 2 changes.

Thanks for testing, that is as I expected. And it proves once again theymos isn't dumb Tongue

Quote from: AverageGlabella on December 10, 2018, 11:47:22 PM

Although, its a good idea. I think encouraging hackers to basically take ransom payments is not a good idea. A lot of the hackers will reject it anyway because they can earn more with it or sell it on for more and those who finally got a conscious will likely give it back without any sort of payment.

Maybe. But what if it helps a few people get their account back?

Quote

I think leaving it to the admins who can research thoroughly into each case and determine the rightful owner is the best way

Definitely! But unfortunately, this isn't happening. I'm trying to find the next best thing to help some users.

Quote

I think giving someone a dedicated job to recover these accounts isn't a bad idea at all.

Theymos has said that if he would throw $100k at it, if that would make all this go away. Some say theymos has a hard time trusting people.

Quote

So instead of taking things into your own hands maybe we can sign some sort of petition for theymos to see that we are sick and tired of seeing hacked accounts on meta and then not even being replied to. I think creating a support system which would tell you where you are in the queue and its actually being worked on could help reduce the amount of threads too.

I tried, and others tried too. It didn't work, that's why I'm considering an alternative approach.

Quote from: Quickseller on December 10, 2018, 11:55:00 PM

I am against using a fixed price. If an account owner is willing to pay $50, and a hacker wants $50 to give the account back, I don't see an issue with facilitating that if you are okay with facilitating a transfer for $25, or some other arbitrary number.

What I try to prevent with a fixed amount, is the hacker trying to raise the price by negotiating. They're still free to do so, but I don't want to get involved as a middle man.

Quote

I would also obtain a separate signed message from the purported account owner to make sure someone is not effectively buying a stolen account.

A signed message is already required to tag a stolen account.

Quote

You should also solicit the opinion of theymos or another admin for each transfer prior to facilitating the transaction in order to give them an opportunity to voice concerns about giving the account back to the claimed owner.

If Admins would respond to requests like these, I wouldn't have opened this topic in the first place. I don't think bothering Admin is going to help.

Quote

If you are going to say your service is "no questions asked" and subsequently txid and/or address details, you will lose credibility with any hackers who want to use your service. Ditto if you later use that information for some kind of investigation.

True, more or less. The account owner will know where he deposited the $25, and he can publish it afterwards anyway. I like to keep it all public, so there's no doubt this information is known. If the account thief doesn't want to be traced, he'll have to use a mixer.

Quote

Also, you should keep in mind that a hacker may tell you to send the bounty to an innocent 3rd party's address in an effort to frame them as a hacker.

Argh! I have no answer to this. If someone is willing to lose $25 to frame someone, it can indeed be done. Someone could even use the addy from my profile.

Quote

If implemented, the correct sub for this would be services, not meta.

I've been able to slightly bend board-rules before, and this can potentially reduce the number of topics in Meta, that's why I chose that board. If a Mod disagrees, it'll find it's way to Services.

Quote

I am on the fence if this is something I would offer myself, probably not. Although perhaps it would put pressure on the admins to put more effort into account recoveries.

By all means, go ahead! I don't mind "competition" in an unpaid service.
Considering the Merit system was rolled out shortly after some DT2s started tagging spammers, I'd be very happy if this speeds up account recoveries and I can end this service before it's even started Cheesy

Quote from: AverageGlabella on December 11, 2018, 01:05:09 AM

You would probably require permission from theymos on whether this service could be allowed but I don't see why not.

Theymos believes in freedom, account trades are allowed, so I don't see how this would break any forum rules.

Quote

I'm just against it because its encouraging paying for ransom.

ransom:

Quote from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ransom

a large amount of money that is demanded in exchange for someone who has been taken prisoner, or sometimes for an animal

I don't think this fits the definition.

Quote from: Quickseller on December 11, 2018, 01:17:25 AM

I don't think a response from theymos should be required to move forward, only an inquiry to theymos to see if he has concerns about the transaction, he may not answer and the transaction may move forward after a day or two without a response, however if he does respond, his advice can be taken into account.

If I start this (in Meta), theymos will read it eventually.